This invention relates, in general, to semiconductor devices and, more particularly, to a method of forming trench isolation regions in a semiconductor device.
Trenches are used to isolate semiconductor device regions on a single semiconductor epitaxial layer. In certain applications, it is desirable to refill the trench with selective epitaxial silicon growth to make contact to the semiconductor substrate. Isolated regions are formed in the epitaxial layer by providing an oxide layer lining the trench sidewalls.
Several problems can arise while forming these types of trenches. The process of fabricating a trench begins with forming a mask oxide layer on a surface of a semiconductor wafer, and providing an opening in the mask silicon dioxide (oxide). Because a silicon etch also etches oxide, a thick mask oxide is needed in order to have sufficient mask oxide left when a trench greater than approximately 10 microns is etched. Due to the silicon-silicon dioxide selectivities of 10:1 to 20:1, the mask oxide must be greater than or equal to 20,000 angstroms for any of it to remain after the trench is etched. This thick oxide requires thick photoresist to define the pattern into the oxide layer. The thicker resist combined with projection exposure results in a very low contrast image. The soft edge angle of the resist replicates into the mask oxide resulting in edge profiles with angles between 40.degree. and 50.degree. from horizontal. Trenches less than approximately 10 microns in depth do not exhibit this problem because a thick mask oxide is not needed.
After the trench is etched, the trench and the mask oxide is lined with a thermal oxide. The liner oxide must then be removed from the bottom of the trench only to expose the semiconductor surface to selectively grow epitaxial silicon using the semiconductor as a seed. When the liner oxide is reactive ion etched from the bottom of the trench to provide the seed for the selective epitaxial growth, a similar amount is etched from the top of the wafer. If the mask oxide remaining is not significantly greater than the liner oxide thickness, there will be insufficient oxide masking the active areas during selective epitaxial growth. Even if there is enough oxide, the very soft slope results in a region of thinner oxide at the top corner of the trench opening. Spurious epitaxial silicon growth can occur during the selective epitaxial growth in the active area through pin holes in the oxide layer or at particles on the semiconductor surface. More seriously, spurious epitaxial silicon growth can occur at the top corner of the trench where the thermal oxide is the thinnest due to the etching during the removal of the liner oxide layer from the bottom of the trench. This spurious epitaxial growth at the trench opening can close the top of the trench before it is filled with selective epitaxial silicon.
One solution to prevent spurious epitaxial growth at the corner of the trench opening is to use a high contrast, vertical edge profile mask. In this way, the mask oxide will have a more vertical slope and thus cover the corner of the trench sufficiently. The only consistent methods to accomplish this are to use a new high contrast resist and process or a tri-level or bi-level mask process. Both of these methods are undesirable because a new resist may not be compatible with existing processes and the added complexity of multi-level masking is quite expensive.
Another possible solution is to do a controlled undercut etch of the mask oxide prior to the silicon trench etch. The undercut moves the top corner of the trench back from the thin oxide region. This process is undesirable because it requires extra processing and the trench width is increased. In addition, the solutions discussed above address only the problem of spurious epitaxial growth at the top corner of the trench. Pin holes forming in the thin oxide over the active area is still a problem. Thus, there is a need to provide a means of preventing spurious epitaxial silicon growth during the selective epitaxial growth in a deep isolation trench. This method must be compatible with existing processes, and must not increase the width of the trench.
By now, it should be appreciated that it would be advantageous to provide a method of preventing spurious epitaxial silicon growth when forming an isolation trench.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of increasing the thickness of the oxide at the top corner of the trench opening to prevent spurious epitaxial silicon growth.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of increasing the thickness of oxide over the semiconductor wafer surface to prevent spurious epitaxial silicon growth.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an improved method of depositing thicker oxide on the semiconductor surface than in the trench.